CILGN/1

The site was visited by the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1859 (Anon/1859a, 340).

Westwood/1879, 110: `This stone stands erect on the south side of the church within the churchyard of Cilgerran...half of its length was buried in the ground and had to be excavated...Mr. Whitley Stokes in his `Three Irish Glossaries' (p. iv, note) refers to this stone, the locality of which he incorrectly gives at St. Dogmael's.'

Rhys/1873, 5: `August 13.---Early in the morning the Archdeacon took us to see the stone in Cilgerran churchyard. We found it necessary to dig it out of the ground in order to get at the entire legend'.

Visited by Macalister during his `epigraphic pilgrimage' in 1921 (Macalister/1922b, 23).

Macalister/1945, 409: `Standing in the churchyard on the northern side of the parish church'.

Geology:

Westwood/1879, 110, `It is formed of the hard greenstone of the neighbouring Preseleu hills'.

Macalister/1922b, 23: `Of the much-worn CILGERRAN stone I have nothing to say, save that it appeared remotely possible that a pre-existing Ogham had been defaced from the angle diametrically opposite the present angle. I cannot, however, feel very certain of this.'

Notes

NE ; arris ; beside cross ; undividedWestwood/1879, 111: `On the north side of the stone, that is, on its north-east edge (for the inscription faces the east), there is an Ogham inscription running all down the edge.'

Nash-Williams/1950, 184: `The Ogam inscription is incised along the r. angle of the face reading upwards'.

Macalister/1945, 409: `The inscription, with its Roman translation, has already been quoted as proving that when MAQI is repeated, the second word is an intrinsic part of the following name.'

Palaeography:

Westwood/1855, 9--10: `On the north side of this stone, that is, on its north-east edge (for the inscription faces east), there appears to be an Ogham inscription all down the edge. The rubbing which I have received does not exhibit these incisions very distinctly; but there are two groups of five oblique dashes of equal length near one end, and towards the other end are two similar dashes, preceded by a single one; there are traces of another pair still lower, and the edge of the stone seems to be notched all the way down.'

Rhys/1873, 5: `the one in ogham took us many hours to decipher as many of the letters had grown very faint, especially those on the front of the stone: some, I may say, were not to be felt at all, but a welcome sunshine enabled us to trace several faint strokes which would have otherwise entirely eluded our scrutiny. Bit by bit we made out the following reading, which we feel confident is the right one.'

Macalister/1945, 409: `are buried in the earth, as are also the first three letters of the Ogham. (The accompanying diagram has been made with the aid of an old paper squeeze...)'.

Legibility:

goodAll the major authorities agree on a reading.

Macalister/1945, 409: `The Ogham is greatly worn; but neither inscription is as illegible as earlier decipherers found them to be.'

Trenagusu (Language: Goidelic; Gender: male)
Westwood/1879, 111: `In a paper read by Dr. Samuel Ferguson before the Royal Irish Academy, the writer dwelt on the colloquial form of the name Trengus in the Ogham text of the Cilgerran stone as contrasted with the expanded Trenegussus of the Latin, showing that ceremonial forms of name were not peculiarly Oghamic (Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 92).' Jackson/1953, 190, also discusses this name.

Westwood/1879, 111: `Mr. J. R. Phillips has suggested to me that the M a c u at the beginning of the second line may be a duplication of the word fili, adding that a farm-house in the parish is called Penallt Trene---Trene's Hill--not Macutrene ; the Rev. D. Evans giving the name of the farm Penallt-Treini, the first word being the common prefix to the name of the first builder of the house, as Penallt Cadwrgan, Penallt Hywell, both in this parish. (Arch. Camb., 1859, p. 340.) It will be further noticed that the word Trene, portion of the son's name, is involved in the Treni forming part of the father's name.'

Palaeography:

First reading published by Westwood in 1855 (Westwood/1855, 9); the text of this paper is largely repeated in Lapidarium Walliae (quoted below, Westwood/1879, 110).

Rhys/1873, 5: `the portion of it which is in Roman characters is not difficult to read'.

Westwood/1879, 110: `The letters are very irregular in size, some being 2 and others as much as 4 1/2 inches in height. They are of a mixed character, showing quite a different style of writing from that of many of the Carmarthenshire stones. Thus the sixth letter of the first line is a miniscule g with a transverse top bar, the SS are f-formed, the H in the second line is an angulated minuscule. The initial T is semi-uncial, with the bottom of the vertical stroke bent to the right. Every E has the middle bar greatly elongated. The terminal T is quite minuscule, with a dash for the top cross stroke. The u of the second line might possibly be read LI conjoined.'

Macalister/1945, 409: `The former [Latin] inscription is pocked on the eastern face, in mixed capitals and half-uncials...but the I of FILI and everything after the E of MACVTRENI are now buried in the earth, as are also the first three letters of the Ogham. (The accompanying diagram has been made with the aid of an old paper squeeze...). HIC IACIT appears to be an after-thought : the name MACVTRENI has been spaced out to make the lines correspond in length, and HIC IACIT, when it was added, had to be crowded into the remaining space.'